Skip, a frictionless checkout provider that announced last October that it would beat Amazon Go in rolling out to 3,000 locations in 2019, is now available in 60 grocery stores. Another 23 are scheduled to go online by Feb. 6.
Skip’s mobile checkout platform is scheduled to be in a total of 275 locations—9 percent of the company’s 3,000-store goal—between both grocery and convenience by the end of Q1.
Skip’s growth in grocery is due to a successful partnership with Associated Food Store (AFS) locations. The wholesaler is rolling out Skip’s services in all of its stores, including Fresh Market, Dick’s, Lin’s and Dan’s.
“Beyond standard quantitative success metrics, the expansion was driven by the amount of positive qualitative feedback the stores receive from customers, including comments highlighting the ease of use, benefits of skipping the line, and even a nod to having larger basket sizes because of the frictionless experience Skip provides for the shopper,” said Skip.
“As the retail landscape continues to evolve at an accelerated pace, it’s experiences like Skip’s Frictionless Checkout that we are excited to implement for our customers. We have a strong focus on enabling the best shopping experiences no matter how our customers want to execute transactions within our omnichannel operations,” said Greg Welling, director of pricing, technology, and data analytics at Associated Retail Operations
As frictionless checkout is expanding in grocery, Skip also is making strides in the c-store industry. Skip this week is conducting a soft launch in Cruizers, a North Carolina-based c-store chain, and it also is rolling out in to two other c-store chains, Domino and Enmarket, for a combined total of 157 locations.
“There is no debate that 2019 will be a huge year for mobile checkout across all aspects of retail. We are experiencing solid growth and our pipeline continues to fill up. We are encouraging retailers to contact us now to avoid a backlog for onboarding the service,” said Chase Thomason, Skip’s founder and CEO.
